Over the last couple days I've read quite a few posts (and a few online petitions) on the ongoing fighting in Gaza strip where Israel is hell bent on flushing out Hamas. In the process hundreds of innocent civilians are being killed as well. Needless to say these posts are lambasting Israel for its attack, with pictures of bloodied children staring down at you.
I don't know if Israel is right or wrong. But I would like to 'gently' remind you of an incident from our not so distant past - 26/11. What happened then? Weren't we attacked by terrorists? Weren't innocent people here blown apart by madmen pretending to be messengers of Allah?
In its aftermath, we said "Enough is Enough". We were baying for Pakistan's blood, exhorting the govt. to do 'something' about it as it was 'about time'. We wanted something hard, something concrete, something that would teach the bad guys a lesson. We even wanted war if it came to that.
So why is it that we are deriding Israel? If we had bombed Pakistan and a few thousand civilians died there, none of us would have been mourning? Most Indians would be dancing with joy and we all know that! So why this rhetoric against Israel?
I'm no war monger and neither do I support Israel's violence. But I suggest we put our own house in order before pointing fingers on anyone else.
7 comments:
Nomad, I'm sure even we would be bombing Pakistan if Pakistan was as weak as Hamas. Even we would've launched an all out offensive against the 'non-state actors'.
Thankfully, this didn't happen coz. nobody wins a war. Every civilian dead creates a dozen more terrorists. At this rate, there wouldn't be any civilians left and then there'll be all the more reason to bomb all of them. Its kind of a never-ending doom game.
Rakesh - I think you missed my point. I am absolutely against bombing of innocent citizens.
My only grudge is against those who think it's okay for India to kill Pakistani citizens but not when Israel kills Palestinians.
This is the point I was telling all my friends (ofc nobody bothered to understand) since last few days- when we are ourselves victims of terrorism and yearning for "harsh action" against them, why is the Indian Govt opposing Israel's operations against Hamas rather than taking a cue from it and flushing out terrorists from their camps in PoK?
Nomad, I exactly got your point and was furthering it. I said 'Thankfully, this didn't happen'.
It is definitely NOT OK to kill civilians anywhere and that's what I was trying to say :)
Well said Nomad, I'm with you on this one. All-out war on a country with a population of 17 crores in not a solution.
What Israel is doing is analogous to using an axe to split peas for soup or using a sledge-hammer to kill an ant i.e. disproportionate force is being used. If I remember correctly, the Indian government's official position is also along those lines.
BTW, I doubt if Israel would've been doing any of what it has been doing if Palestine had a well-organised army to match Israel's and, additionally, nuclear weapons. That is where the Israel-Palestine and India-Pakistan equation differs in this respect, I believe.
I agree with you that large sections of the Indian population would've rejoiced at the killing of innocent Pakistani citizens in any comparable action by Indian armed forces. These, however, would be the same people who are so pleased with political parties within India that organise state-sponsored pogroms against minorities that they vote overwhelmingly for such parties, post-violence. They love to hate and hate to love any one who is 'different', I suppose. Thus, the cycle of hatred, violence, 'revenge' and more violence and 'revenge' continues.
Interestingly, the one and only Mohandas K. Gandhi wrote a rather interesting article, in 1938, on the Arab-Jewish (now Arab-Israeli) conflict that can be accessed at http://www.kidvai.com/windmills/2009/01/non-violent-look-at-conflict-violence.html .
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